Badge of Pride
by BloodRedRanger
Summary: Tommy reflects on the one simple action that could blow their cover entirely.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers.**

**A/N: Just a short one shot. Set in Tommy's point of view, late season three.  
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Opening my locker, I look at the six binders for my classes. Red, black, blue, yellow, pink, and green. Grabbing the yellow binder and my math book, I have to smile. Aisha hates math, it's her worst subject. Trini on the other hand, loves math. It's been a tradition since day one. Before I came along they color coded their binders, everyone got their favorite subject in their favorite color, and its like that throughout the team. When Jason, Zack, Trini, and Kimberly left, the colors remained. Shoot, I even kept the history binder green when I became the White Ranger, just as a throw back to our roots. That's just one of the subtle things we do to show our pride in our work.

I guess the most obvious thing is our choice of clothing. It's probably the most dangerous thing to the entire operation. We're always wearing our Ranger colors in our regular outfits every single day. As soon as a monster attacks, we're gone. Some people have to know. I bet Ernie does. Bulk and Skull just...gave up their search. I wonder if they know too. Probably not. Our parents...maybe. No one has ever spoken to us about it. Maybe they're waiting on us to say it. Maybe they don't know and it's not as obvious as we think.

Why do we do it?

Why do we do something so dangerous? Something that could blow our cover?

Pride.

That's the only reason I can think of. I'm proud to be the White Ranger, just as I'm proud of my time as the Green Ranger. Those two colors now mean more to me than any others, because those are the colors I proudly wore in my battles against the monsters of evil. Not every monster is a demon sent from outer space though. As teenagers and as human beings we face difficult challenges every day. From martial arts competitions, to homework, to peer pressure...the battle doesn't end when the Megazord makes that finishing swing. And so I wear my colors to remind me who I am, and to give me my strength.

It's a thing of respect, too. You have to look carefully to see things like that. I think Jason and Kimberly are the ones who started it. Actually, it was just Kimberly, but Jason picked up on it pretty fast. It was so subtle, I didn't even notice it my first two months. Kimberly always, without fail, would be wearing something red. Sometimes a whole shirt, or an armband, or just a stripe on her skirt to show her respect and love for the man that she saw as her older brother. The only reason I noticed is because she started throwing in some green, which turned into white. Jason had a bit of a harder time, but after awhile he stopped caring. There was always something pink on him, regardless of what people thought. Usually it was his shoelaces actually, but those days he wore boots he always had a pink, cloth armband on. I eventually picked up on that one, too, and purchased my own pink armband and shoelaces, just to let her know she's always on my mind. It turned into a sort of a game really. If we went to a competition for any other Ranger, we would always wear their colors. Billy always wore yellow to thank Trini for being probably his closest friend, and the one person to truly understand him. Trini was a big fan of plaid skirts, and if you looked close, the stripes were red, black, and blue for the men that were always there to protect her. Zack always tried to squeeze as many colors as possible into his outfit, just to show how much everyone meant to him. Rocky, Adam, and Aisha always had a combination of red, black, and yellow in their outfits to show the unbelievably close friendship between them. Kat, new as she is has already picked up on it. I see that white and green constantly in her outfit to show her thanks for rescuing her and accepting her.

Before I close my locker I look at the picture of the two people closest to me I have taped on the door. It's a picture of Jason and Kimberly from before I met them. They're sitting side by side on the grass, smiling with their arms around each other and enjoying life. What's interesting about it is that Kimberly is wearing a red tank top and a jean skirt, while Jason is wearing blue jeans and a pink polo shirt. It's one of my favorite pictures of all time, because I think it symbolizes just how close our group is, and even though Kimberly's in Florida and Jason is in Switzerland with Zack and Trini, we're all still as close as ever. I have to wonder if they still wear not only their own colors, but the colors of those close to them. I'm sure they do. After all, it's our badge of pride.

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**A/N: Kinda pointless, just felt like typing it up. Let me know what you think!**


End file.
